Early Start Led to Impressive Career
By RICK FOLKMIRE
An estimated sell-out crowd will pack Hoch Auditorium to see two of the world's most renowned musicians July 20 at 8 p.m.
Skitch Henderson—composer, conductor, pianist, raconteur, and one of the country's outstanding concert and television personalities—will be featured with Carl "Doc" Severinsen, acknowledged by many contemporary musicians to be the finest trumpeter today. They will be backed by a 45-piece professional orchestra.
Born in Birmingham, England, Skitch Henderson spent most of his boyhood in Minnesota, Kansas and Oklahoma. Showing an early aptitude for the piano, he started lessons when he was only six. At 15 he moved to Chicago and then to California, where he began to think seriously about a musical career.
AFTER GRADUATING from the University of Southern California at Los Angeles, he began work as a rehearsal pianist and orchestrator for motion pictures. Henderson's musical originality and pianistic dexterity soon brought him to the attention of such stars as Judy Garland, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. He made many tours with them, both as piano accompanist and as conductor.
After wartime service as a B-29 pilot, Henderson became the musical leader of the biggest program then on radio, "The Bing Crosby Hour." He became a nationally known figure practically overnight, and it was not long before the National Broadcasting Company moved his headquarters to New York and the world of television.
In 1953, four years after becoming a permanent member of the NBC music department, he launched his serious conducting career as guest director of the NBC Summer Symphony. Conducting the New York Philharmonic in Marc Blitzstein's "Airborne" Symphony, with chorus and soloists, Henderson made his Carnegie Hall debut. The performance was a stunning success, and from then on, Henderson's double music life flourished.
HE IS EQUALLY at home in any music, be it Bruckner, Irving Berlin, or boogie-woogie; his colorful career ranges from piano stints in what he affectionately calls "saloons" to guest direction of the New York Philharmonic.
Henderson's success has been notable in all facets of musical endeavor. Typical praise came after a New York appearance, when the Herald Tribune critic wrote that "Henderson's work was a pleasure to encounter. Professionally top drawer, more than usually sensitive to purely aural values and paced with a sure sense of theatre, his musical talents run to more depth than those familiar as a television personality."
AMONG THE MANY professional musicians, "Doc" Severinsen is acknowledged to be the finest trumpeter playing today.
Carl "Doc" Severinsen was born in Arlington, Oregon, in 1927. His father, who was an excellent musician as well as a dentist, started him on the trumpet. When he was nine, he won the Oregon State contest. At the age of 13, Severinsen won the National Senior Division contest.
After high school and Army service, Severinsen was featured with the orchestras of Charlie Barnett, Sam Donahue, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa. In 1949 he settled in New York City to free lance, and his first steady assignment was "Camel Caravan," with Vaughn Monroe. For several years he studied with the late Benny Baker, former first trumpeter with Toscanini.
HE THEN BECAME staff musician of NBC, working on such shows as those of Kate Smith, Dinah Shore, Eddie Fisher and Sid Caesar.
In recent years he has been a featured artist and assistant conductor of NBC's "Tonight Show" orchestra.
Severin森 served as consultant/clinician to the Getzen Band Company of Elkhorn, Wis., and in five years has become number one in demand as guest soloist/clinician in the educational music field.
Continued on page 4
kamper kansan
Vol. 5. Issue 2
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
Friday, July 7,1967
Ballerinas' Legs Outlined in Tights
By JOANNE YAWITZ
Well-proportioned legs covered by black, pink or white tights is the universal description of the ballet students at the Midwestern Music and Art Camp.
Many of the girls in ballet feel conspicuous wearing such obvious apparel. Also, they become hot and sweaty quickly after classes begin. One girl estimated the loss of one pound after an hour and a half of dancing.
Sore ankles and aching muscles are evidence that each girl dances from two to three hours every day.
LATER IN THE SESSION the ballet schedule will become much more rigorous. The girls will have the opportunity to practice up to nine hours each day. Their schedule will consist of one and
a half hours of class in the morning,
a rehearsal, lunch, class in
the afternoon, followed by another
rehearsal.
Judy Goodman, St. Louis, Mo,
said the only thing ballet students do is "rehearse, eat, and sleep."
The consensus was that the teachers are inspiring and that they make the student want to work to the best of her ability and to have fun at the same time.
The lack of windows in the studio is a major dissatisfaction among the girls. Others commented on the rusty barres, the out-of-proportion mirrors, and the uneven floors.
The ballet concert, planned for the last week of camp, will represent a combination of difficult rehearsals and tough competition.
'Sadies' Chase Boys
Well, girls, now's your chance to ask a boy to a dance! The third weekly dance of the Midwestern Music and Art Camp will
Tempo on Time
The camp yearbook, Tempo, is running on schedule with deadlines, according to Lee Young, yearbook sponsor. By Wednesday 90 per cent of all pictures used in the book had to be ready and by today all copy must be prepared. The staff has been working on layout.
Work is going as planned and delivery is scheduled for the last week of camp. Campers can order Tempo through their dormitories for $3.
Most people "dress up" in unique costumes which will be judged before the evening ends. In past years people came dressed up as anything imaginable. One couple came dressed as a caveman and a cavewoman, another as an Arab sheik and a member of the harem, and many as Lil' Abner and Daisy Mae. Many boys dressed as girls, three boys dressed as maids, and many dressed as bums.
Entertainment will be provided by records and a band made up of campers.
be the annual Sadie Hawkins Dance at Oliver Hall tomorrow at 8 p.m.
Remember girls: If Daisy Mac can catch Lil' Abner, then you can catch your date, too.
-Kansan Photo by David Gump
THE COMPLEXITY OF TV MACHINERY
Journalism students Sue Hansen, Whitehaall, Mont., left, and Jean Michaelson, Baltimore, Md., listen to a Topeka television station engineer explain the mechanics of Station WIBW equipment.
Students or TV Stars?
Journalists Visit Topeka
By DAVID GUMP
Journalism campers toured computerized yearbook plants, inspected WIBW's broadcast operations, and heard of summer jobs for high school students at the Topeka Capital-Journal on their trip to Topeka on June 29.
The first stop was the American Yearbook plant, which handles yearbooks from as far away as California, Minnesota and Washington. Here, all work on a a school's yearbook is tracked by computer as it moves through the various departments. The group watched as the staff typed copy,
laid out pages, and made photoengravings of the pages. In this ultra-modern plant, the type is sometimes set by computer.
AFTER A BOX LUNCH in Gage Park, the journalists traveled to WIBW's studios located adjacent to the Menninger Foundation. They were filmed as they watched WIBW-TV's noon "news strip"; a block of live news, weather and farm shows. The film of the campers was shown on the 6 p.m. news that day.
At the studios the campers learned of the high cost of television broadcasting. One color
camera costs $78,000; one video tape machine costs $103,000.
At the Capital-Journal's building the group toured the physical plant and saw the two-star and blue streak editions of the Journal being published. They learned that the Capital-Journal, with a circulation of 100,000, takes five wire services at a cost of $1,000 per week.
The students asked about job opportunities for women. They were told that the Capital-Journal hires women as general assignment reporters and also has a female associate state editor.